1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sunroof apparatus in which a lid for opening and closing an opening formed in the roof of a vehicle can be moved to a fully-closing position, a tilt-up position, and a flap position.
The present application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. Hei. 11-146530, which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a conventional sunroof device, for example, there is known a sunroof device, which is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei. 1-55124.
In this apparatus, a lid for opening and closing an opening formed in the roof of a vehicle is connected to a drive source through a cable, and a moving shoe slidably fitted with a pair of guide rails respectively disposed on the two sides of the opening is slidably engaged with a guide slit formed in a guide block fixed to the lower surface of the lid. As the drive source rotates forwardly and reversely, the moving shoe is allowed to move within the guide slit, whereby the lid is able to move to a tilt-up position where the rear end of the lid is raised up from its fully closing position and a flap position where the rear end of the lid is lowered from the fully closing position.
However, in the above-mentioned conventional sunroof apparatus, when the lid is situated at the fully closing position, a guide pin is situated substantially at the center of the guide slit in the longitudinal direction thereof; and, in case where the guide pin moves forwardly from the position, the lid is allowed to move to the tilt-up position and, in case where the guide pin moves backwardly from the position, the lid is allowed to move to the flap position. Therefore, when the lid is situated at the fully closing position, the moving shoe is standing still substantially at the center of the guide slit. Due to this, a structure for controlling the play of the moving shoe in the back and forth direction is made complicated, which results in the expensive cost of the sunroof apparatus.
Also, in a sunroof apparatus of a power type in which a lid can be moved by a drive source such as a motor, a motor control circuit for stopping a moving shoe at its stop position is complicated, which results in the expensive cost of the sunroof apparatus.